Meanings
- idiomaticBefore the term was coined (the term being a word or phrase used just previously in an anachronistic way)
Suffragettes were feminists avant la lettre.
5 more examples
Could the Greeks of that time, whose minds were frustrated and demoralized by defeat and misery, be expected to give a welcome to those premature Quakers and to those Tolstoyans “avant la lettre”?
1952, George Sarton, A History of ScienceHow is it, then, that Flaubert was a somber impressionist avant la lettre, when the school of painters was remarkably cheerful with the exception of both Degas and Van Gogh?
1973, Marlies Kronegger, Literary Impressionismas St Francis of Assisi was recently discovered to be an ecologist avant la lettre
1998, Dominik Declercq, Writing Against the State: Political Rhetorics in Third and Fourth Century China, page 341a work with a title that is a marketing dream, pure Julia Child well avant la lettre: Le Cuisinier français, The French Chef.
2007, Joan DeJean, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, page 107One might even advance the case for Wilde's being a celebrity avant la lettre, famous partly for being famous
2010, Stefano Evangelista, The Reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe, page 65
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Frenchavant la lettre
- Englishavant la lettre
Borrowed from French avant la lettre (literally “before the letter”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch avant la lettre
- avant la lettreTranslations
Finnish ennen sanan olemassaoloa
- ennen sanan olemassaoloaTranslations
French avant la lettre
- avant la lettreTranslations
Italian ante litteram
- ante litteramTranslations
Polish avant la lettre
- avant la lettreTranslations
Cite this entry
avant la lettre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avant%20la%20lettre
“avant la lettre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avant%20la%20lettre. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “avant la lettre,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avant%20la%20lettre.
Source: avant la lettre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.